1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hydrogenation reaction catalyst precursor, to a process for production thereof, to a hydrogenation reaction catalyst, and to a process for producing an alcohol using the hydrogenation reaction catalyst.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 1-305042 and 5-177140 (corresponding U.S. Pat. Nos. are 4,918,248 and 5,229,346, respectively), there is disclosed a process for producing an alcohol utilizing a copper-zinc hydrogenation reaction catalyst precursor having a copper-zinc catalytic component carried on a titanium oxide and/or titanium hydroxide carrier base material. The copper-zinc catalyst precursor undergoes reductive activation and exhibits a high catalytic activity and a high reaction selectivity in alcohol production.
However, the titanium oxide and/or titanium hydroxide carrier base material of the catalyst precursors disclosed in the above publications, e.g., a commercially available titanium oxide which has a large surface area and a titanium oxide and/or titanium hydroxide which is obtained by hydrolysis of an alkoxide of titanium, are expensive as compared with ordinary carrier materials such as silica, alumina, silica-alumina, and zeolite. Therefore, the catalyst precursor using the titanium oxide and/or titanium hydroxide as a carrier base material has a problem of a high production cost. In addition, for further enhancement of the economical efficiency of alcohol production on an industrial scale, further improvement in catalytic activity and reaction selectivity has been sought.
On the other hand, a hydrogenation reaction catalyst using a less expensive carrier base material such as silica, alumina, and zeolite, instead of titanium oxide and/or titanium hydroxide, seemed to be significantly inferior to those using titanium oxide and/or titanium hydroxide in catalytic activity and reaction selectivity. Therefore, it has generally been thought that a catalyst using a material other than titanium oxide and/or titanium hydroxide as a carrier base material cannot practically be employed for alcohol production.